A video monitoring system may produce a large amount of data when distributing video streams generated by one or more cameras. Because components in the video monitoring system may be interconnected via a network, distributing the video streams can consume a significant amount of network resources. A single operator, when presented with a number of video streams on a display, can only focus their attention on one video stream at a time. Thus, in conventional video monitoring systems, a significant amount of network resources are consumed by the distribution of the video streams that are not being viewed by the operator.